Great book; but definitely not his personal best.

books:

	• Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey Chuck Palahniuk Anchor Canada, 2008 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 122 reviews view larger image
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Chuck's best book yet!

This book didn't really totally kick in (for me) until about 1/2 way through. Then I was blown away completely by the complexity and thematic richness. Amazing stuff!

One of his best

I loved this book! The style was fresh & exciting and like Palahniuk's best books, the story unfolded perfectly, with hints and allusions to what is actually going on. I enjoyed every moment I spent reading it.

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Chuck has done it again

Just as with all of Chuck's books, as soon as you have figured it out there is an impossible twist and a bewildered look comes over your face and someone one in the room asks "What's wrong?"
You have no answer unless they have already read the book and only then can they understand your befuddlement.
Chuck's decision to write this as an "oral biography" was fascinating. I have never read anything in this form and was fully captivated from page one. The characters are developed in a way that you hardly notice and by the end they feel like old friends.
Certainly not as gruesome as "Haunted" but a throughly enjoyable read.

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Good but not Great - by Chuck's standard

Long time reader of Chcuk, and I admit I expect a lot more of him than most authors based on many of his books that I read which were brillaint and some of my all time favourite reads. So 3 stars is really on the "Chuck scale".
I was honestly a bit apprehensive about reading this novel, given the style, which am not a big fan of. But once I got into it I really enjoyed it. Like so many of the readers, I too found the first 100 pages or so exceptional but after that for me it lost something. There were great moments here and there, but seemed to be lacking any direction and a bit lazy in parts. Overall the party crashing chapters for me were the weakest and least interesting, again like so many others I was thinking "fight club" here we go again.
Maybe I am too critical but as I said from the start I expect a lot from Chuck and whilst this was a better effort than Haunted, he is still to live up to his high standards in this one.

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Great book; but definitely not his personal best.

If this was the first Palahniuk book I ever read, 5 stars.
If it were the 9th or 10th (which it is), 4 stars.

The raw shock often associated with his books is undeniable in this one, however as a conditioned Chuck fan, I know what this man is capable of.. and this book was just a bit sub par for him.

This book lived up to my expectations of the author, but only by the skin of its teeth. True, it was entertaining & engrossing enough to keep me coming back to its pages every chance I got, and yes it had the essential never-saw-it-coming twist that Chuck is noted for.. however, the narration dragged at parts & it left questions not answered as well as in his other books; lots of loose ends were tied, but not very tightly.

The book is written in the style of an oral biography; meaning there is no one single narrator, but several different narrators who "contributed" to the "biography" -- a childhood friend, a neighbor, his parents, scholars commenting on certain theories and/or Rant's life. Every story or thought is preceded by a character's name and a colon, almost in the form of a play. I found this to be a refreshing tactic; it helped to keep the story consistently interesting & rolling. Especially so because the reader may see the same story or memory from totally different perspectives, or perhaps a different spin on the same rumor.

All around a good read for the beach, in between classes, before bedtime, or wherever.. I don't regret buying it & I still don't hesitate recommend it to all my friends interested in his writing style.. just don't expect Rant to be the end-all be-all, career-defining masterpiece of Chuck's work.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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